A snowy, icy morning caused some issues across Hall County, including a brief time when school bus drivers were halted from taking children to school.

School officials, concerned about reports about some poor road conditions, decided about 7-7:30 a.m. that drivers needed to "pull off their routes into a safe area," Hall school spokesman Gordon Higgins said.

When conditions were deemed safe, the drivers resumed their routes.

"There were no accidents and everybody is safe at school," Higgins said.

The delay lasted about 20 minutes and heaters in the buses kept children warm, he added.

Hall County schools will operate on a normal schedule today.

Higgins noted that school officials, following procedure in inclement weather, had checked conditions earlier in the morning, after the snow had fallen, and determined that the "roads were absolutely clear."

"Shortly thereafter, the temperature dropped and we had icing," he said.

Hall County schools Superintendent Will Schofield sent this e-mail at 9:43:

"Good Morning,

I wanted to apologize to staff, students and their families for the weather situation this morning.  As is our protocol, our team was up at 4:00 a.m. discussing conditions with emergency management, comparing notes with neighboring systems and personally checking conditions in all parts of the county.  All indications were that conditions were fine.

At around 6:30 a.m., the temperature dipped much more than expected and our area had a significant amount of black ice accompanied by traffic wrecks and delays.

The safety of our staff and students is our paramount concern.  We will examine our practices and determine how we can improve our decision-making process."

The winter blast caused some icy spots across the area, including on the Ga. 53/Dawsonville Highway bridge.

A winter weather advisory for much of North Georgia, including Hall County, has ended. Skies have cleared and the temperature will rise to 44 degrees. Sunny skies are forecast for the next several days.